Implementing Digital Marketing Ideas You Took Away from a Conference

I recently attended a healthcare communications conference in Bloomington, Indiana that was organized by the Indiana Hospital Association. It was a great conference with an all-star lineup of speakers.

Chris Boyer from Northshore/LIJ Health System, Jay Baer from Convince & Convert and Dr. Bryan Vartabedian from Baylor College of Medicine and 33 Charts were keynote speakers. Jay discussed being useful to consumers rather than always selling to them, Chris spoke about the need to embrace, measure and show ROI from digital media and Dr. Vartabedian spoke about the role of physicians in the social media landscape. All three of these speakers are well known in the healthcare world and are all at the forefront of modern marketing and communications – and sent us away feeling inspired to implement some new ideas.

Have You Done Anything Yet?

Most conferences are like this. You talk with your peers, get some great insights from the keynote speakers, you get energized and feel empowered. Then you go back to work and day-to-day life takes you right back to reality. You feel like the implementation of the ideas you learned about are going to be more work and resources than you have or can handle. The status quo is powerful and it’s hard to change.

Youtility

I want to take a couple of the principles that I learned in Indiana and apply them here. How can I be useful to healthcare marketers in achieving their goals? I’m not sure I have a complete answer or if there is only one answer. I think that every organization and marketing department has its challenges. The only thing that I can offer on a regular basis to you is my time. Do you have a question about digital marketing that you don’t know the answer to? Is there a question you have that you really don’t want to ask the IT team but would like to find out yourself to better understand the technology? Whatever it is, I am available. You can email, tweet me or call SilverTech and ask for me.

Digital Strategy & ROI

Chris Boyer is spot-on about the power of measurable ROI. However, getting started can be a daunting task. One service we offer at SilverTech is an on-going partnership that allows the organizations we work with to have a systematic long-term plan to achieving their marketing goals. Like Chris talked about, start with a one hundred-day plan that will be easy to implement, measure and show results. When you partner with a digital agency like ours not only can you measure and track every dollar; you can hold the agency accountable for the investment you put in.

What Will it Cost?

Maybe you’re thinking, “OK Chad, this sounds like it could be a good fit for me and my organization but what’s it going to cost?”

This of course is dependent on many factors. What do you spend on a television commercial or a billboard or a radio campaign? For a portion of what you spend on a billboard, could you implement strategies to fulfill the digital goals that we discussed at the IHA conference? If you could show your CEO two referrals for high-margin procedures that specifically came from your digital marketing efforts, would that be worth it? These are achievable goals; it’s just a matter of implementation.

Where Do We Start?

A 30 minute conversation is usually the best way to start. From this, I can come back to you with a few ideas, a high-level implementation plan and a budget. We will then work together through any issues, questions or concerns that may come up. Once we agree on a plan, I will produce a detailed proposal and we will then move on to implementation. Just a reminder, we will track your investment and show you ROI.

If this is something that sounds like it may be a good fit for you and your organization let’s talk. If this isn’t in your wheelhouse right now, no problem. I am still available to be a resource for you in any way that I can. Thanks Indiana, it was a lot of fun and I met a lot of really great people.